Decentralized exchanges on the Solana blockchain set a new monthly trading volume record, surpassing $60.34 billion in March, based on DeFiLlama facts.
This performance more than doubles the previous record of nearly $28.14 billion set in December 2023 and is the second highest volume of all blockchains – surpassed only by Ethereum’s $77.55 billion for the month.
BSC had the third highest DEX trading volume at $47.81 billion, while the fourth spot went to Arbitrum’s $27.74 billion. Strikingly, trading volume on BASE increased almost sevenfold over the month to $7.8 billion.
Memecoin frenzy
The increase in trading volume corresponds with significant interest in memecoins within the Solana ecosystem, highlighted by notable artists such as Dogwifhat (WIF) and Bonk (BONK), in addition to newer entrants such as Book of Meme (BOME) and Slerf (SLERF).
Meme coins related to political figures such as Donald Trump and Joe Biden also made gains in March.
Other meme coins on Solana, such as Popcat (POPCAT), also saw significant gains, rising 45% to a price above $0.33.
Despite the typical volatility of the meme coin market, Dogwifhat ended March up 43.9%, and Bonk ended the month up 1.3%.
Leading DEXs
Orca led the Solana DEX space, with $3.6 billion in trading volume last week, followed by Raydium and Phoenix with $1.73 billion and $1.6 billion, respectively.
This period of increased trading activity has particularly benefited Jupiter, a decentralized exchange aggregator on Solana, whose native token JUP has risen 24.9% over the past week.
While meme coins fuel the buying frenzy on the Solana network, the SOL token itself started in April with a 4% drop in value over the past 24 hours, with its price currently just under $189.
Even with this slight downturn, Solana’s market cap reached an all-time high of over $90 billion in March, reflecting expansive growth and engagement within the decentralized finance sector and vibrant meme coin market.